The present disclosure relates to an information processor, image data optimization method and program for accumulating image data and acquiring and displaying the image data in response to an image viewing request from the user.
In medical, pathological and other sectors, a digital pathology technique has been proposed that is designed to digitize an image of a live cell, tissue, organ and so on obtained by an optical microscope so as to allow for medical doctors, pathologists and others to test the tissue and diagnose a patient based on the digital image.
In the method described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2009-37250 (referred to as Patent Document 1, hereinafter), for example, an image obtained by an optical microscope is digitized by a video camcorder incorporating a CCD (Charge Coupled Device), and the digital signal thereof is fed to a control computer system for visualization on a monitor (refer to paragraphs [0027] and [0028] and FIG. 5 in Patent Document 1).
In the system descried in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-148895 (referred to as Patent Document 2, hereinafter), for example, position information is set at an arbitrary location of such an image such as an area suspected by the observer as an ailing bodily part. Content information is associated with this position information. This system displays position information in the form of a mark together with an image and accepts the operation adapted to select the displayed mark using an input device such as a mouse, displaying the content information registered in association therewith (refer to paragraph [0027] and FIG. 5 in Patent Document 2). The function adapted to associate positional and content information with an image and display an image visually combining the positional and content information as described above is referred to as an “annotation function.”